Department of Corrections: Michael Gerson vs. the Health Industry

Obama's grand cost-control announcement -- joined by health industry leaders -- of a 1.5 percentage point reduction in health inflation each year was a shoddy, half-baked, deceptive mess. The (unsubstantiated) saving was really 1.5 percentage points after 10 years, leaving administration officials to backpedal and supposed allies to fume.

I have no idea where he got that. Last week, the health industry leaders released their package (pdf) of specific reforms meant to achieve the promised savings. The first paragraph on the first page says, "we will do our part to achieve your Administration’s goal of decreasing by 1.5 percentage points the annual health care spending growth rate – saving $2 trillion or more." And the italics, by the way, are in the original document, not added by me. Gerson is simply wrong.

Michael Gerson told another lie in his peice today. He wrote, "Government health programs of the type Obama seeks to create are not good at cost control (as Medicare has proved)."

This is a clearly lie. Medicare has done a much better job controlling cost than private insurance. A study by the highly respected Lewin group proves this and so does a study by Institute for America's Future. Medicare cost increased by an annual 5.8% while private insurance cost increased by an annual 7.4%. There is no one in the industry who does not think Medicare has done a better job of controlling cost. In fact one of the biggest complaints agains Medicare or a Medicare like public plan is that it pays less for health care services than private insurance companies (i.e. controls cost too much).

Gerson also fails to mention the Veterans Health Administration, where the patient load increased by 70% between 1999 and 2003, but costs increased by only 41%. The VHA has been successful not only in controlling costs, but also in improving quality, so that it demonstrably delivers some of the best, if not the best, health care in the United States. (h/t Ezra and the excellent article on the VHA by Phillip Longman in the Washington Monthly cited by Ezra yesterday)

Conservatives are not accountable for the accuracy of their information; they believe that every conservative is entitled to his own facts. Only liberals are not entitled to their own facts; they must adhere to the opinions of conservatives!